As regular readers of my blog know, over the past week I’ve written a couple of articles about the original Rico Metalite Mouthpieces. These unassuming mouthpieces don’t carry the hefty price tag of other big name pieces, but they were indeed designed by a big name in mouthpieces: the late Arnold Brilhart.
Source: A Friend Of Bassic Sax
Unlike their Graftonite cousins which Rico continued to manufacture, Metalites were discontinued. Why? Who knows. It’s doubtful at this point even Rico could give you an answer.
In any event, this left players who were looking for these loud, projecting, yet very controllable Rico pieces, relegated to trying to either find them used—or if a person was lucky like I was—as new old stock in music stores.
Source: eBay.co.uk
After much lobbying by players it appears that Rico got the message, and in 2009 the company did reintroduce the dull grey plastic mouthpieces that had many of the properties of metal ones. However, when the Metalites were reintroduced, there were not as may facing choices for players, and sizes were no longer listed on the boxes.
Because I regularly get people looking for information about the Rico Metalite mouthpieces, I decided to compile a chart of the original facings as they were listed on the boxes.
Facing Chart For The ORIGINAL Rico Royal Metalite Mouthpieces
| Soprano | Alto | Tenor | Baritone | |
| Soprano | ||||
| M5 | .060” | |||
| M7 | .065” | |||
| M9 | .070” | |||
| M11 | .075” | |||
| Alto | ||||
| M5 | .080” | |||
| M7 | .090” | |||
| M9 | .100” | |||
| M11 | .110” | |||
| Tenor | ||||
| M5 | .095” | |||
| M7 | .105” | |||
| M9 | .115” | |||
| M11 | .125” | |||
| Baritone | ||||
| M5 | .100” | |||
| M7 | .110” | |||
| M9 | .120” | |||
| M11 | .130” |
Source: A Friend Of Bassic Sax
When Rico decided to reintroduce the Metalites, they did so only for soprano, tenor, and baritone. To date no new alto Metalite models are available.
Source: eBay.com
I have read on the Internet—I believe it might have been on SOTW—that Rico decided to not bring back the altos at this time because there is not enough demand for them. I find that hard to believe since we know there are more alto players than any other type of saxophone. Although perhaps they conducted some research and the alto players surveyed didn’t like them. Or perhaps the Internet chatter was incorrect.
Something on the ‘Net wrong? 😯 I know it’s shocking that someone might post something that’s inaccurate, but please try to get over it. 😉
I have an entire Series on the Rico mouthpieces already—which this article is a part of—so I will not review more about the Metalites here. Please see the rest of the articles in this Series to read more about these Arnold Brilhart designed mouthpieces, and why these sleeper pieces are such a good value for your mouthpiece dollar.
I can confirm that any standard-sized soprano ligature will fit a Rico Metalite soprano mouthpiece. I know this because I have a soprano Metalite mouthpiece and it’s one of my favorite mouthpieces. The same goes for the tenor & alto Metalites – any standard ligature will fit them. This makes good sense when you stop and think about it: it would have been unwise of Rico to make odd-sized mouthpieces that it was difficult to find ligatures for. It was in Rico’s best interests to keep everything standardised, so that’s what they did. 😉
Helen, I am thinking of buying a metalite for my soprano, do you know if they fit a standard ligature? I know they are meant to sound like a metal piece, but they sure as anything don’t look as skinny as one.
Hi Chris.
You are right, these Rico mouthpieces are not as skinny as regular mouthpieces, although the soprano and baritone pieces are the smallest of the bunch—proportionally speaking—and closest to other mouthpieces for the size of horns. I don’t have a Metalite soprano, but I have had a Graftonite for years, and before I switched to the Runyon Custom, the Rico was my main soprano mouthpiece.
For a ligature I use a Rovner on it. Unfortunately the box is long gone, so I don’t know which one it is. I do however have a bunch of new old stock Rovners that were left to me by my tech when he moved out of town. Many of them are for very small mouthpieces, but I will take a look and see if any of them fit my Rico. If any of them does, I will let you know which one it is.
I just went to the Rovner website, and when I entered Rico Royal soprano, this is what I came up with for ligature options.
Edit: I just checked my link, and apparently the output page won’t save. The link kicks you right back to the sizing page. Oh well, I tried. :scratch: Anyway, just enter Rico Royal Soprano, and you’ll come up with the fitting Rovner options.